Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let’s pretend to write our own. Tell us who you would write the petition to – a person, an organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) – get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change? (Thanks to Briley of inDpendence for this topic suggestion.)

Hello, medical schools, intern and residency programs in endocrinology! Also, greetings to nursing, dietician/nutrition, and CDE programs! Have I got a petition for you:

In order to form a more perfect union of fact and feelings; endocrine and emotional; medical and (real-life) mess…

In order to provide treatment for diabetes that is more collaboration than compliance, and more recommendation than mandate…

In order to see people with diabetes as the human beings that we are, rather than some hypothetical model or ideal that we can never fully achieve…

We people with diabetes – of all types and treatments, all BGs and HbA1Cs, of carbs and/or protein, of various caffeines and d-technology –

Do solemnly (unless we’re reading some The Cinnamon, because really, that stuff is hil.ar.i.ous, and quite frankly, you should be reading it too) request:

All y’all need to do some time- and experience-intensive training in how to speak with us.

Because in those 7, or 10, or 15 minutes if the person after us has cancelled at the last moment, we really need you to make the absolute most of your time with us.

Ask us the right questions, about not only what we’re having problems with, but also what’s WORKING for us.

Spend most of your time listening to what we say.

Learn how to respond in ways that are supportive of where we are, and help move us (and help us make the choices to move) toward the healthier behaviors we already KNOW we could be using.

Have the most recent research available to support both your recommendations and OUR choices.

Don’t ever shame us or treat us like I’m stupid.

Listen to what we tell you. Ask us on-point questions about what we say, not about what you thought we said or should have said.

Tell us we’re doing a good job. Look and listen HARD to find something to compliment. Even if it’s just that we came to our appointment. (Because it’s not JUST that we came to the appointment. That could be EVERYTHING, for many of us, on some days…)

Refer us to resources that are worthwhile, that know what we’re going through, that are helpful. That don’t waste our time.

Don’t waste our time. These are our 7, or 10, or 15 minutes too. Make the most of them WITH us.

Play for my team. Cheerlead. Analyze. Strategize. Watch the play-by-play. Coach me on how to play better. But for cripes’ sake, play with me, not against me. And don’t just sit there on the sidelines, get in the damn game with me. I need you on my team.

In support of this petition, and in support of better and more training for medical professionals to treat people with diabetes of all types, with a firm reliance on the not-always-perfectly-accurate readings of our blood sugars and the protection of the injectable, oral, dietary, physical, and spiritual interventions necessary to keep us alive, we mutually pledge to you our interest in your success, our participation in the process, and our honor as people with dysfunctional pancreata who know what we really need in order to stay alive to the best of our abilities.

i am not a doctor.

or a certified diabetes educator, or any other type of medical professional. I do not have a medical degree or license. please consult your own health care provider with regard to your own diabetes management practices. what I describe and discuss on this blog is my own life experience with type 1 diabetes, and should not be considered medical advice.